The Gazette’s writers are out and about sampling the fare at restaurants in and around Teesside. Each gets a verdict for value, family-friendliness and whether we would be keen to return for another meal. This week, Heather Willis gives her verdict on Borge, Stockton.

Price range: Starters range from £3 to £9 for a sharing platter. Mains range from around £7 up to £17 for a fillet steak but the majority of pizzas and pastas are around the £8 mark. We turned up during happy hour (5.15-7.30pm) when all pizzas and pastas are just £6.50 so if you time your visit right, you’ll get a bargain. Desserts are all under £5.

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Restaurant reviews

First impressions: I was pleasantly surprised when I walked through the doors for the first time in well over a decade. The restaurant has a clean, white and black look and was very busy, despite it being a Tuesday evening. My boyfriend and I had booked so were quickly shown to our table and handed the menus.

The waitresses were all very friendly and it was nice to be able to see the chefs working away in the open kitchen area towards the rear of the room.

Choice of food: The menu is huge and packed full of so many good choices. As a veggie, I was pleased to see there were a number of dishes I could have picked.

Borge offers a full selection of pizzas and pastas as well as kebabs, burgers and “specialties” - of course including Teesside’s favourite, the parmo. If you want to splash out a bit, the restaurant also offers fish and steak dishes.

Potato skins starter

Garlic / Cheesy garlic bread starter

What we ate: To start, we ordered the potato skins with garlic mayo (3.50) and the garlic bread (£3.50). We couldn’t decide between the cheesy or plain version so our helpful waitress let us have half and half.

I preferred the non-cheesy side as the mozzarella seemed quite heavy on the thin base. However, the whole thing was quite oily despite tasting good.

The potato skins were more like fritters but were really nicely cooked and went really well with the garlic mayo which was particularly good - I even kept it back for my main!

For the main course, I opted for the vegetarian calzone (£6.95 when not during happy hour) and Christian chose the penne carbonara (£6.95).

Penne carbonara

Vegetarian calzone main

My calzone was massive. It made a pleasing crunching sound as I cut into the middle and steam came spouting out of the hole.

It was packed full of vegetables and a good amount of cheese and I really enjoyed it.

I only managed one half but our lovely waitress boxed the rest up for me to take home.

Christian’s carbonara was also a generous portion. He was feeling full before he got halfway through.

It wasn’t the best carbonara he’s had but it was tasty and filling - and, thanks to happy hour - very good value.

Banana split dessert

There’s a good selection of desserts on the menu and I was pleased to see one of my favourites - sweet waffles (3.95).

Our waitress recommended the butterscotch ice cream but I (being me) fancied chocolate so she let me have a scoop of each.

The waffle was hot and the ice cream was delicious. My only complaint would be that the sundae spoon I was given wasn’t really up to the job of cutting through the waffle.

Christian went for the banana split (£3.50). The fruit came with three big scoops of ice cream, three scoops of whipped cream and chocolatey goodies and he couldn’t fault it.

Sweet waffles and ice cream dessert

The good bits: The food! It was really tasty and filling and such good value. The service was also really good and we were happy to leave a decent tip at the end. We were served each course quickly and were only in there just over an hour.

What could be improved? Not a lot. The garlic bread was a bit too greasy for my tastes and we had to wait a while to get our bill but other than that, we were pleased with the whole experience.

Suitable for a couple or a family? There was one little girl in there when we arrived but she was just with her dad. It’s not really the sort of place to have youngsters running around so you’d be better off taking older children or leaving them with a babysitter and enjoying a date night.

Value for money: Our final bill was £33.10 which included two pints of Pepsi.

Would you go back? Definitely! And I won’t be leaving it another 13 years!